The “paperless” office has been a
decades-long vision. It seemed
to have finally achieved its promise a
few years ago with the ability to scan
and attach digital versions of paper
documents and digital signatures. Now,
those concepts are already a thing of
the past. Today’s technologies enable
digital processes from start to finish.
Business best practices, like the
paperless office, are designed for
efficiency and optimization. Yet best
practices are constantly evolving,
and incorporate the latest enabling
technologies to continuously improve
optimal procedures and processes.
Governments design processes around
best practices and the ones that want to
stay ahead of the curve build programs
and train experts to manage and monitor
them as technology changes.
For back-office solutions, advance-
ments in cloud computing have become
pivotal to establishing and achieving
modern best practices. Cloud computing
is the underlying technology for other
digital enablers, including social, mobile,
analytics and the “Internet of Things”—a
network of connected physical objects
with embedded internet applications,
sensors and more that collect, analyze
and exchange data.
This emergence and rapid acceptance
of cloud computing today represents a
new opportunity for agencies. In fact, the
adoption of modern best practices are
global and cross-industry, says Bob Sabo,
Strategic Programs Lead, Oracle Public
Sector. With the public sector’s need to
increase efficiency and effectiveness, they
are critical for modern government.
“ With modern technologies you can
interact with citizens, employees and
other stakeholders using completely new
channels,” he says. “Effective agencies
take advantage of digital transforma-
tions, and embed solutions into the pro-
cess—whether it’s financial reporting,
budgeting, or employee recruitment.”
Government organizations have
always pursued process improvement,
better integration of resources,
reduced paperwork and other overall
ef ficiencies. Technology is often the
foundation of those pursuits. In many
ways though, modern technologies are
now driving best practices. Without
them, you can only advance so far.
Here’s a look at how technology is
positively affecting several areas of
business best practices.
Human Capital/
Talent Management
The overall workforce is changing and in
many cases shrinking. In government, this
declination is exacerbated by the gradual
aging out of a generation of workers who
have accumulated decades of institutional
knowledge and expertise. Agencies need
to examine their existing workforce and at
the same time seek out new workers to fill
defined gaps. This means that govern-
ment is competing with private industry
to attract the same caliber of professional
from a shrinking pool of resources. So the
competition for that talent is intense.
Agencies are also faced with an
entirely different dynamic: they need to
have a comprehensive understanding of
their existing workforce. Who is ready
to retire or move on to other positions
and when will that transition likely
occur? They have to predict their future
needs and establish a plan to ensure
they have resources with the necessary
skills to fill those gaps. Success requires
sophisticated data collection and a way
to marry that with analytics to help
predict those future needs, understand
potential gaps, and develop a robust
succession plan. And this should
be naturally paired with a modern,
engaging recruitment and applicant
tracking system.
In order to attract the best talent,
modern government business practices
must align to the expectation of the
skilled job seeker. They tend to live in
a highly social, mobile-first world and
learn about employment opportunities
through multiple channels, using
messaging and social networking
applications to interact with their
networks. Agencies must provide a
simplified, user- friendly solution
that helps job seekers start and move
through the process efficiently and
easily. Successful recruiting efforts begin
with the first interaction, and top talent
expects social, mobile and easy-to-use
solutions at work. Organizations that
BEST PRACTICES: THE MODERN BACK OFFICE
The Evolution of the Best Practice
“Ef fective agencies take advantage of digital
transformations, and embed solutions into
the process—whether it’s financial reporting,
budgeting, or employee recruitment.”
—Bob Sabo, Strategic Programs Lead, Oracle Public Sector
Technology helps drive modern best practices in government
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